Lucinda Schreiber's Animated Ode to Husky's 'Saint Joan' Music Vid

Photoplay Films director Lucinda Schreiber has directed a magical animated music video titled ‘Saint Joan’ for Triple J unearthed Melbourne band Husky – the first Aussie band to sign with U.S label Sub Pop, in the wake of the band’s sophomore LP ‘Ruckers Hill’.

The brief set to Schreiber was to bring to life a visual response to Saint Joan’s melodies of love and loss, memory, time and redemption; all universal themes mankind longs to explore.

By forming style frames for key lyrics in the song, the video is broken into animated loops. Once the style frames were approved, the director developed them into a series of key frames for each loop. Refined and edited together with connecting animation, the video is seamless from start to finish like an infinite loop.

Created in Photoshop as a two-dimensional frame-by-frame animation, a tablet and stylus was used to draw each frame and although it's far from analogue, Schreiber was able to hold onto the warmth and charm of traditional animation, as each frame is lovingly hand sketched. 

The live action component of the clip was shot in Sydney and for the most part, the director and band collaborated remotely, with Sydney-based Schreiber working on the animation from New York.

“Throughout the process the band was very supportive and trusting of my creative approach,” said Schreiber. “I sent them an initial concept that included a broad outline of narrative and imagery, and from there, I shared style frames and subsequent sections of animation to ensure I was staying faithful to their song,” she added.

"There's a lovely dreamlike quality to the lyrics and I pictured everything taking place in the night sky, like ancient constellations. At every step of the way, I had images running in my head as I put them together in an almost indirect, non-linear way. This gives the animation a mythological feel that matches the dreamscape of the song.”

Timing the visuals to the lyrics and hitting the right melody was a 50 per cent technical and 50pc intuitive process: “I think animation and music are naturally quite symbiotic, especially frame-by-frame animation as it has a movement and poetry of its own.”

Schreiber has previously created music videos for Gotye and Midnight Juggernauts. Entertainment Weekly premiered Saint Joan in the U.S. overnight.